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Italian banks may now issue covered bonds, as a result of the enactment of Law Decree 35 of March 14 2005, converted into Law 80 of May 14 2005.

Tsvetan Krumov and Iskra Neicheva of Landwell Bulgaria explain the ins and outs of corporate governance in Bulgaria

Bankruptcy laws and blame are inextricably linked. When a company goes bust, people lose money, fingers are pointed and blame apportioned. For public companies especially, the difficult art of value preservation comes into play, while investors demand answers as to what went wrong. Often management takes the fall, as is only correct as they are the stewards of companies, but the real work in keeping a company alive or fairly dividing assets is a long and arduous job, hampered by the lack of harmonization among insolvency regimes around the world.

BNP Paribas appointed a new general counsel for North America. Betty Whelchel joined the French bank's New York office having previously served as global general counsel for Deutsche Asset Management. Whelchel had earlier served as deputy general counsel for Deutsche Bank's New York branch and, before that, was with Shearman & Sterling in New York and Tokyo. She will report to Hubert de Vauplane, global head of corporate and investment banking, legal and to Everett Schenk, CEO of corporate and investment banking for North America.

Antonio Di Pasquale, Lovells Lovells appointed corporate partner Antonio di Pasquale to its Rome office. Pasquale, previously a partner at Pavia e Ansaldo, joins with a team of three other lawyers from his previous firm. He is a specialist in corporate and debt restructuring, joint ventures, initial public offerings (IPOs) and corporate governance, and is the second partner to join Lovell's Italian practice this year, following the election of Francesco Curreli in May 2005.

Slovenian competition law consists of two distinct independent regulatory frameworks. The Prevention of the Restriction of Competition Act (the Competition Act) prohibits restrictive agreements and the abuse of a dominant position and, while the rules on unfair competition aim to prevent behaviour that violates the principle of fairness when performing business activities (the Protection of Competition Act, or the Competition Act 1993).

According to the Kuwait Tax Law (Decree 3 of 1955), every body corporate carrying on business in Kuwait should pay tax on its Kuwait operations. The tax is calculated at an increasing rate depending on levels of profit, up to a maximum of 55%.

Michele Caratsch of Haymann & Baldi warns that legislators might be getting too carried away in their efforts to improve Switzerland's already world-standard governance regime

Melissa J Schwartz and Felix Saratovsky of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld highlight the differences between US and Russian board of directors standards and the developments expected in this area of Russian corporate governance

On July 1 2005 the UK overhauled its listing regime. Alex Kay and Justine Fowler of Herbert Smith consider whether the changes point to a brave new world for UK corporate governance